Bob Guccione premiered his art at the Nassau County Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and numerous other exhibitions. Guccione is universally recognized as an entrepreneur who had the rare talent of combining the vision and sensitivity of an artist with the entrepreneurial savvy and commercial instinct of a gifted businessman. With no formal art training, he set sail for Italy in the spring of 1949 with a box of paints, some brushes, and a few dollars. He spent the next 23 years living, working, and traveling throughout Europe and North Africa.
 
Many of his original paintings and sketches were created in the late 1950s and early 1960s between productive periods in Rome, Paris, and finally, London, where in the spring of 1965, Guccione launched his publishing career. His total immersion in business curtailed his career as an artist; but his passion for art was evident in his magnificent private collection of major works by artists such as El Greco, Botticelli, van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Dega, Gauguin, and Chagall, which was ultimately sold to Sotheby’s in 2002.
 
Seen through the lens of his camera, his artistic expression continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Guccione created a unique style that has remained timeless and relevant throughout the decades.  His vision was the intersection of beauty, desire, humor, and innocence.